


The Heart, Not Hers

by StarksInTheNorth



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Unrequited Love, season 7, sister bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24122209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarksInTheNorth/pseuds/StarksInTheNorth
Summary: Jon Snow's parentage is revealed but he turns away from the Starks and declares for his aunt instead. Arya is there to console Sansa in her grief.
Relationships: Arya Stark & Sansa Stark, one-sided Jon Snow/Sansa Stark - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	The Heart, Not Hers

**Author's Note:**

> Already posted some Dany angst that's unfortunately depressing so here's some old Jonsa angst that I've finally re-edited.

The anger burns hotter in her heart than the flame in her hearth, and shines brighter than the firelight glinting off her hair. Sansa passes the raven’s scroll between her fingers, stewing over the scrawls of text.

_Sansa,_

_Cersei Lannister has pledged her forces to our cause, as has Daenerys Targaryen. And if we survive this war, I have pledged our forces to Daenerys at the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. We are both coming to organise the defence of the realm against the Night. More may be made of this alliance, but first we must survive._

_Jon Snow  
_ _Warden of the North_

His words are like daggers of ice stabbing into her back, destroying everything they fought so hard to win.

Arya sits at her side, seething. The grey of her eyes is like the steam of boiling water, too hot and hard to touch without burning. Their half-brother may have chosen to declare a Dragon Queen, but the two Stark sisters are just as much fire.

“How do we tell them?” Arya asks, eyes on Sansa.

Sansa taps her fingers on the arms of her chair. Her mouth hardens into a line. “We don’t.”

“Certainly word will spread?” Arya suggests, and takes the parchment from Sansa’s hands. “Someone is bound to find out.”

“Maybe if Littlefinger were alive we would have to worry. No one here has his resources or his ears for gossip.” Sansa stares into the hearth, watching the logs gain more burn across their surface. “We should prepare an explanation, but we should wait.”

Arya nods. “If anyone starts asking too many questions, I can have a conversation with them.”

She gives a sharp look at her sister. “We don’t need any more trouble than this will cause.”

“I’ll be polite, I promise.” Arya smirks. “I’ll even mind my courtesies.”

Sansa cannot help but laugh at that, but it still stings. There is more to this anger in her than just the betrayal. Jon has set her aside as his advisor, not thought to ask her advice at all in this matter, or anything that he has done while in the south. He never asked about Bran or Arya, the two siblings she knows he loved more than her. Sansa thought something in the south had clouded his mind, and now she knows.

Daenerys Targaryen. It was as Littlefinger had warned it would be, that the King in the North gave up his throne for a beautiful woman. And from all she's heard, there is plenty else to love about this queen, with her kind heart and her great armies, three dragons at her command. She is a breaker of chains, a mother of dragons, a queen by birth and conquest and choice. 

But she couldn’t help but blink back her tears when she realized he was making the same mistakes Robb had, even though she had warned him not to. Robb married a foreign woman and the North despised him for it. She knew nothing of Talisa Magyr, but she did know her brother. Robb had thought with his heart, not his head, and thousands had suffered for it.

Just like another conflict worsened by a wedding.

Bran had told her the day after the letter came. Jon is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys’ brother. He is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, but he has pledged to support to Daenerys’ claim instead.

_More may be made of this alliance, but first we must survive._

There is love there, for certain, for what else could more be made of this alliance? Jon will marry Daenerys and be her queen. The end will bring the end of their family's safety in Winterfell because Jon will not be with those who call him brother. Even though Sansa was trying so hard to keep from saying that because she wanted him in a different way instead.

Sansa closes her eyes and sighs, spending only a moment imagining the future that this letter gave a chance for and then ripped away just as cruelly. She wants him back, to see him and know him, so that she could understand why Jon had abandoned so much of his head for this. Was it coming back from the dead, that made him forget his to duty to the North? His fealty to his family? His loyalty to her?

And perhaps that’s what stings most, of all of this. She thought Jon trusted her and part of her thought he wanted her, for her counsel, for her knowledge, for her self. But everything she can offer him, as a sister or, as a dangerous part of her mind whispers, as something more, was thrown aside like so much snow into the wind.

She did not realize there were tears in her eyes until Arya took her hand. “It’ll be alright, Sansa. It’s just a new battle, but you and I have both fought worse and won.”

Years ago, in what seems like a different life, a young girl tried to comfort her sister over her anger at being parted from the boy-child she thought she loved with all her heart. Sansa had refused Arya’s love and support then, thought she was being rude and hurtful, but it was she who had been the heartless one.

Now, she leans into her sister’s touch and lets her heart free. Tears come, ones she didn’t know she had to cry. Arya lets Sansa lean against her, runs a hand in circles across her back as the blubbering murmurs comes out. She is scared of what this will mean for the North, but she is also scared of what this will mean for her.

There are things that are wrong and things that are right. She can never vocalize what she feels, but she can let it out in this sad disguise. Arya is her comfort and her rock, everything she needs and thought she already had.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think, then come hangout on [tumblr](https://www.starksinthenorth.tumblr.com) to talk about Jonsa, Jonerys, Daensa, OT3, ASOIAF, and GOT. I also take prompts in my [ask box](https://www.starksinthenorth.tumblr.com/ask/).


End file.
